Sad Francisco

Discussing the word "affordable" and how it's weaponized by the real estate industry. What is Affordable Housing? zine https://gayshame.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/What_is_Affordable_Housing_2025_zine.pdf Gay Shame zine: Steal This House: Dissecting the War on Houselessness and the Housing Crisis in the SF Bay Area https://gayshame.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Steal-This-House-Chronological-Order.pdf Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) https://baytanc.com West Side Tenants Association https://sfern.org Western Regional Advocacy Project https://wraphome.org Street Sheet newspaper https://www.streetsheet.org/ Indybay https://www.indybay.org Related episodes: With members of WSTA https://www.patreon.com/posts/we-keep-each-f-102747039 Landlord Tech with Erin McElroy https://www.patreon.com/posts/109663054 Food Not Bombs with Keith McHenry https://www.patreon.com/posts/136586623 Abolish Landlords with Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis https://www.patreon.com/posts/119757781

Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon.

Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social

Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/

Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103

Keith McHenry co-founded Food Not Bombs in 1980, and has been arrested more than 100 times for serving free food to homeless people and protesting the US government. A history lesson on SF's Phil Burton Democratic Party machine, black bloc, and how FNB became labeled as a domestic terrorist group by the FBI. Food Not Bombs https://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/ Seven Steps to Starting a Food Not Bombs https://foodnotbombs.net/seven_steps_flyer.pdf Keith on Twitter https://x.com/keith_mchenry Keith on Substack https://keithmchenry.substack.com/ Episode with Stop AI https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/M2FkNmUxNWEtM2M0NC00ZjBmLWE4NjQtYWQ2YmUxZDNhOTU5

Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon.

Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social

Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69

Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103

Starting in 2021, a shoplifting panic was hatched and spread by corporate media, cops, and politicians, resulting in life-or-death consequences (see: Banko Brown).

Damena Page called from SF county jail to report on the conditions, abuse, and how reporting abuse can result in retaliation.

Amy Martyn is a journalist based in the Bay, who's been covering the shoplifting panic since the beginning of the pandemic.

Damena on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/girlyfacemena/

America's absurd war on 'organized retail crime' (Amy Martyn, Business Insider)

https://www.businessinsider.com/americas-war-organized-retail-crime-target-cvs-victorias-secret-2024-9

Women Languish at San Francisco's Jail for Years Without Answers—or Sunlight (Amy, The Appeal)

https://theappeal.org/women-languish-at-san-franciscos-jail-for-years-without-answers-or-sunlight/

The Killing of Banko Brown (Toshio, The Nation)

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/banko-brown-killing-san-francisco-crisis/

Sad Francisco episode: "Avenge Banko"

https://episodes.fm/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzQ0NTgyNC9yc3M/episode/ZTI4NDgxYzQtZmVjNy00MDUxLWE1ZTEtYmQ1ODA0MmE5ZDJi

Ten years have passed since the fire that disappeared the apartments and businesses at 22nd and Mission Streets, and killed Mauricio Orellana. Many people continue to suspect landlord arson. Slumlord Hawk Ling Lou inherited the buildings in the 1990s, and owns the now-empty lot, plus about 20 other buildings in San Francisco (some under family members' names).

On May 15, 2025, despite overwhelming community dissent the Planning Commission granted Hawk Ling Lou the permission to build market-rate luxury condos on the space. If they're ever built, they'll be sold to hypothetical newcomers and investors from outside the Mission.

Alejandra Rubio grew up in the Mission and has been following the story of the block since she was a teenager. Now a fellow at Galeria de la Raza, she's archiving the memories of people living in the area through a series of art and a zine, so the history of the block doesn't vanish.

Download the zine

https://alejandrarubio.art/22nd-and-mission-series-of-events

Alejandra's website

www.alejandrarubio.art

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/alejandraaaa415/

TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@alejandraaaa415

Al Jazeera article on the fire (Toshio, with Prisca Carpenter, Kentaro Kaneko, and Clio Sady)

https://web.archive.org/web/20160117083725/http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/2/hot-rental-market-sparks-suspicions-of-landlord-arson-in-san-francisco.html

Sad Francisco episode on 22nd and Mission, with Christen Cioffi

https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/ZWVlYTI1MWUtYzk0YS00ZmRkLTgzMjMtYTIxNmYzMTVjZWJj

Sophie Lewis's book Enemy Feminisms depicts some of Western history's most despicable women, like Alma Bridwell, a Pentecostal preacher who spread the gospel of the KKK, and May French Sheldon, an explorer and genocide apologist for Belgium during the Rubber Terror in the Congo Free State. They were also some of the most celebrated feminist figures of their time, weaponizing feminism for capitalists, authoritarians, and white supremacists.

Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2440-enemy-feminisms

Sophie's Patreon https://www.patreon.com/reproutopia

The Girlboss episode, with Krystal Farmer https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/YTQwMTYyNTgtOGJiZS00YTgwLTg4MjQtZWY1MDI5YTA2MjY4

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Seasons change, fascists remain. Another one where Toshio and Tofu have a semi-incoherent discussion about things in the works at Sad Francisco HQ.

The protests that corporate media is mostly ignoring

(Erica Chenoweth, Jeremy Pressman, and Soha Hammam, Waging Nonviolence)

https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/03/resistance-alive-well-us/

Citations Needed

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

https://fair.org/

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

In 1989, the Golden Gate Bridge was blockaded for the first time by a group of protesters going by the name Stop AIDS Now…or Else! They were sick of their friends dying in a government-facilitated genocide of queer people (the medical industrial complex and corporate media were complicit, too).

It wasn't till 2016 that another group of protesters (black.seed) blockaded the Bay Bridge, this time propelled by the Ferguson uprisings and the crisis of Black people dying, especially at the hands of police.

And then in 2023 and 2024 the Bay Bridge 78 and Golden Gate 26 blockaded for Gaza; some still face charges.

Actions to take for the Golden Gate 26: linktr.ee/gg26solidarity

Event hosted with Gay Shame (gayshame.net), HALA Collective (thehalacollective.com), and Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism! (quitpalestine.org)

Emceed by Lavelle Ridley and Stab and featuring:

Deeg, Stop AIDS Now…or Else!, Gay Shame and Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism!

Jemma and Ralowe, black.seed and Gay Shame

Golzar and Turner, Bay Bridge 78

(Follow Golzar for COVID-safer events: instagram.com/cutiecraftyparty/)

Jordan and Mannan, Golden Gate 26

linktr.ee/gg26solidarity

Recorded at Counterpulse on June 24, 2025.

Thanks to Ach and Eddie at Counterpulse, and Healthcare Workers for Palestine (linktr.ee/hcw4pal).

Related episodes:

Deeg on the boycott of Manny's

https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/OTExOGQwNDctNDFkOS00MzE3LTk2ZGQtNjk4NTVkMmFlZDQz

Deeg on queer Bay direct action group LAGAI-Queer Insurrection!

https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/OTIxNTJmOWUtMDAxZi00YjgxLWExZGMtZDJlMzBjN2M0OWMx

Jemma and Ralowe on hating Signal

https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/ZjhjYTc4MDktNzAyNS00NzYyLWIyZWYtNTM0MGUzNjEzOTAw

Jemma, Lavelle and Mama Ganuush: Trans Black-Palestinian Solidarities

https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/NmYwYTkxYmEtYmYxNS00ZTQxLTk1OWItMzZjNDY3YWMwZDRm

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Chris Roberts is who you call to learn how the Navy's atomic weapons tests made parts of SF toxic, and the government's radiation experiments on people incarcerated at San Quentin, military officers stationed at Pittsburg, and the 49ers.

Read Chris's reporting and listen to Rebecca Bowe's companion podcast:

Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunter's Point sfpublicpress.org/exposed

"The Naval Scientist Who Wanted To Know How Football Players Would Survive Nuclear War" (Chris for Defector) defector.com/the-naval-scientist-who-wanted-to-know-how-football-players-would-survive-nuclear-war

See Chris on July 12, 2PM at the Shipyard Gallery, Building 101, 451 Galvez Ave. Hunter's Point Shipyard Artists' "Decommissioned" is open Saturdays through August 2 shipyardartists.com/decommissioned

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Zionists are still trying to pinkwash Israel's genocide, co-opting queer and trans institutions in the service of the Netanyahu dynasty and the Christian Zionists behind Project Esther.

One way they're doing this is by attempting to de-fang the radical history of Dyke March, a march that has happened every Saturday of Pride weekend in San Francisco since the early 1990s.

With Lisa Roth of Dykes for Palestine, and Jemma and Kira from Gay Shame.

The Diametric Dyke March for a Free Palestine June 28, 2025 18th and Dolores, San Francisco Gather at 4PM March at 5PM

Gay Shame gayshame.net https://www.instagram.com/gay.shame/ Kira's Linktree https://linktr.ee/kira_is_cold A report back from the san Francisco dyke march town hall, April 2025 (Stab, in UltraViolet) https://lagaiultraviolet.wordpress.com/2025/06/15/a-report-back-from-the-san-francisco-dyke-march-town-hall-april-2025/ "No Gay Rights, Only Queer Wrongs" with Deeg, Deni and Jemma https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/NjA2NTZkZDgtODQ1Mi00MzlhLTliNDEtM2EyZWVmOGM4NThi

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

This week, rewind to one of our earliest episodes on how for two years, the SFPD was uninvited to Gay Pride. In solidarity with the cops, politicians boycotted the 2022 Pride parade, and a few pro-cop LGBTs sold everyone else out.

New episode on the radical history of the Dyke March coming next week, also with Jemma!

Gay Shame's 5-0 Out of Pride video series: https://gayshame.net/index.php/five-o-out-of-pride-50

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco